Friends of the Library 13th Annual Poetry Slam with emcee Roscoe B. who is a full time poet and spoken-word artist, teacher, and parent born and raised in Richmond, VA. I am the creator The Writer's Den LLC. A poetry slam is a competition in which poets read or recite original work. The performances at a poetry slam are judged by a panel of judges, typically five, and usually selected from the audience. The judges usually give each poem a score on a scale of 0–10 (zero being the worst and ten being the best). The highest and lowest scores are dropped and the middle three are kept. The highest score one can receive is a 30 and the lowest one is a zero.